In a land haunted by the legacy of dead dragons, Rowen Locke has been many things: orphan, gravedigger, mercenary. All he ever wanted was to become a Knight of Crane and wield a kingsteel sword against the kind of grown horrors his childhood knows all too well.

But that dream crumbled—replaced by a new nightmare.War is overrunning the realms, an unprecedented duel of desire and revenge, steel and sorcery. And for one disgraced man who would be a knight, in a world where no one is blameless, the time has come to decide which side he’s on. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Please note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review courtesy of Sage’s Blog Tours.

Review:

This was a new fantasy epic that certainly kept me on my toes as the story unfolded. I found the pacing a little inconsistent, but otherwise the story is intriguing and the characters are certainly unique. My main complaint would be the very slow build. I didn’t feel like I was getting into the story until I was roughly halfway through. That being said, Rowen is an endearing hero who certainly has his faults, but as soon as the adamune shows up, I found the book much more interesting.

The world building is well done and the different races were unique to me. As I started to really get a sense of the situation, I realized why it was going to be so complicated of a setup. I really appreciated that because it meant the story was less predictable and the characters were more surprising. I would certainly plan on continuing the series and other books by the author!

Warning: Contains repeated violence.

Rating: 4 stars!

Who should read it? Fans of fantasy epics, but if you’ve never read one before, this isn’t going to be the one that gets you into them.